Boeing Inks Enlarged 737 MAX Sale to Icelandair

On Wednesday, Boeing announced that it has inked a deal to sell Icelandair 16 of its new 737 MAX airplanes, including both MAX 8 and larger MAX 9 variants, altogether valued in excess of $1.6 billion (at list price, which no one ever pays).

Icelandair had originally placed firm orders for only 12 of the planes back in December but today upped its order by four planes. In addition, Icelandair has taken out options of eight more 737 MAXes. In a press release on the sale, Boeing noted that it has now received a total of 1,180 737 MAX orders from its many customers.

Icelandair operates an all-Boeing fleet, currently composed entirely of 23 Boeing 757 aircraft. Thus, today's sale promises to potentially double the size of its air fleet (albeit by adding smaller planes), while preserving Icelandair's status as an all-Boeing operation.

Despite the bad news, Boeing shares continue to be dogged by negative sentiment surrounding its troubled 787 Dreamliner program. In Wednesday trading, they edged down 1%.